When Dan Ahlers decided to open Video Plus 15 years ago, people told him it wasn’t a wise business venture. They told him the industry had one foot in the grave.

Those offering Ahlers advise weren’t necessarily wrong – outside of Dell Rapids it can be challenging to find a brick and mortar business still renting videos. But the skeptics didn’t count on old-fashioned customer service and laughably low prices building a loyal fan base that has business booming at Video Plus.

“By industry standards, when I was getting into it, the glory days were over. I was told that my business would never last, that I couldn’t do it and that the days of the video store were over,” Ahlers said Friday morning as he readied for another day of business. “That was 15 years ago.”

While Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and thousands of other video stores have closed doors across the country as Redbox kiosks and Netflix have dominated the industry, Ahlers is weathering the storm by not reinventing the wheel.

“I think customer service is what’s most important,” he said. “That’s one thing our competition really can’t offer. You’re either talking to a machine or a website.”

Netflix and Redbox aren’t the only reason so many video stores have folded. A lot of the blame, Ahlers said, can be placed on the failed businesses.

“Poor service, pricing themselves out of the market and I think sometimes poor business models … that’s what it got to be with some of the big stores,” he said. “It became about the number of copies on the shelf, not the level of service that was being provided.”
While perusing the 12,000-title catalogue at Video Plus Friday evening, Tom Schwebach said he enjoys the wide selection you wouldn’t find in a rental kiosk.

“They have a heck of a great selection here,” he said.

Tammi Schwebach said she prefers renting from Video Plus because late fees are only 25 cents per day, four times less than Redbox’s penalty for overdue movies. And she estimated Netflix wouldn’t be any cheaper either.

“If we looked at what we spend on movies for the year, we wouldn’t make it up through Netflix,” she said.

Ahlers prides himself on offering a fair price.

“Our prices really haven’t changed or gone up since the day we opened,” he said. “My rental prices have been the same. I don’t charge extra for BluRay (late fees), and a 24-ounce pop is still 99 cents.”